Method of loading cars



0. 0. EATON.

METHOD OF LOADING CARS.

FILED JUNE 19, I922.

/ FIGURE 2 FIGURE. 8

may be transported Patented Jan' 16, 1923,

1 01mm 0. Enron, :or wA'rsonvILLE, CA -moanin amba 11mm CARS?Application ,filee June 19,

able fruits in trays whereby the said fruits without injury and withabundant ventilation. g"

'In' the drawings Figure 1' is ajtop plan, view." of a sec tion of a carequipped with my improved method of loading car's, parts'being brokenaway. Y I t.

Figure 2 is across sectional end view of the same, parts being brokenaway.

' Figure 3 is a top plan view showing the method of securing the rows oftrays at the center of the car, parts being broken away. Figure 4 isan'enlarged detail sectional view through one end of a tray. 7 Inshlpplng fresh garden produce, such as strawberries in box' cars, :it isdesirablethat they be shippedin the trays in which they are marketedwithout being placed in the shipping" crates ordinarily used. jBerrytrays 1 for shipping are oblong in form and contain as aruletwelve' baskets of berries as 2. In placing the trays the;

car I arrange .them'in stacks'of some ten trays as at 3 and thenarrangethe stacks with their longer sides substantially parallel with' thesides of the car body 4 as fat Since ventilationis not requlred throughthe ends of. the trays the ends of adjacent stacks are placed incontact, one endof eachv row of stacks engaging one end of the car as at6 and the other end being held by suitable framework built up in thecenter of the car as at 7, each stack being placed solidly againstthestack already placed so that each row of stacks is somewhat.under;compression longitudinally.

The sides and bottoms of each tray are ventilated as at 8 asv a freepassage of air to the ventilated. tray is necessary. There-" fore theseveral rows are spaced apart as at 9 and from the sides of the car asat 10.

To hold the several rows in their proper positions in the car, a numberof cleats as.

11 are arranged transversely of" the rows 19 22 QSerialijNoL.569,281;

ai d t "th eisy fr e i as 7 which they pass and butted against one orboth sides" of'ithe' car as shown in T Figure,

2 thus forming braces for supporting the stacks against lateraldisplacement.

In securing the trays; in a car, I a

is p'royided' between" the several trays in a stack. securethislock'ingj of-thefstacked trays by providing trayconstructed. in

r a such" amanner that it:automaticallylooks against-movement.withirespect to theltrayj abov r below. In the. embodimenthereindisclosed I use a-"trayin which the; upper edge ofeach end is.rabbetedjas @13'13} and adapted to engage the; rabbet' "13 inzi the nextlower tray; v; 1, It is obvious that when onetray IS'SO constructed andarranged with relation to the next lower or upper tray;

described, however, it'ispracticallyirnposy. *sible to prevent movementof the trays with} respect to each other unless alockingfmeans 4 v theloweredge ofeachendi carries a cleat l l' that 'no longitudinalmovement. isf-possible therebetween, and then av lateral movement of oneend of say, the top traywill apply a twisting strain to the whole stackof trays,

the twisting strain binding the several trays move as aunit.v v i Thisaction is highly important in the.

cleats 11 are used. In placing these cleats 11 in position the naturalirregularities of the r trays, careless placing-and nailing, etc., willhere and there leaveslight spaces-betweeI'IL the ends of certain cleatsand the sides of the car@ When, now, the car swings over one way a shortcleatpermits a lateral move:

ment of the ends of the trays to which it is together so. that they canonly swing or secured. This twistingof thezt rayfhowfl.

ever, securely loeks'it to the trayibelow and? soon down through thestack thereby keep ing all of thetraysin each stack effected inthe1r=propervertlca'l'alignmenn entire load may be held in position byone set of transverse cleats on the top of the load. v of trays and thebraces 7 in'the center of the car. The car may be loaded quickly.because the stacks may be all truckedinto position before the cleats andbraces, are applied J whereas underv previous methods the trays havetobe built into asolid 'mass by an in- H a 4 In'theconstruction' andmethod set-forth] no longitudinal. cleats are required and the" 1 s5 1loading method set forth because of the inaccuracies necessarily presentwhen cross tudinal cleats.

The task of unloadinga ear in which the tra s are bound b transverse andlon itudi-c nal cleats interspaced'throughoutthe mass is a large one,while by my method it is comparativ'ely simple since when the transversecleats and the braces are removed the several stacks may be liftedbodily, and trucked from the car.

"It is to be understood, of course; that.

While I have herein shown and described one embodimentof my invention,changes may be made Within the scope of the appended claims. F orinstance, any construction of trays maybe used that Will preventlongitudinal IIIOVQIHGIlt of one with relation to the other, and anysuitable form and arrangement of bracing cleats may be used to preventlateral movement of the several stacks, under some conditions a singleset of transverse cleats only being required on the tops of theuppermost trays;

I claimry s {1. Themethod of loading a car which consists in arranginga'stack of trays supported against longitudinal movement with relationto-each other, arranging the stacks longitudinally in spaced rows in thecar, bracing'the roWs' against longitudinal displacement, and bracingeach stack a distance from,

the bottom against substantial l-ateraL di placement.

longitudinally in spaced rows in the car,.

bracing the rows against longitudinal dis, placement, and bracing eachstack a distance, from the bottom against substantial lateral,

displacement.

The method ofloa-ding a car which, @011? sists in arranging a staclroftrays supported. I I

. against longitudinal movement With relation to each other, arrangingthe star-ks lougitudi nally in spaced rows in the carpbracing the rowsagainst longitudinal displacementv and securing cleats to the-ends ofthe uppermost trays transversely thereof and substan tially engaging thesides of thecar. V 4. Themethod of loading a carwhich consists inarranging a stack of trays supported against longitudinal movement withrelation to each other, arrangingthe stacks longitu dlnally in spacedrows in the car, bracing the rows against longitudinal displacement, and

bracing the rows against lateral displacement. i

5 01min o. EATO

